2.19.2010

The New Snow Removal Plan for the Nation's Capital:Legions of elderly women in wheelchairs will be deployed during the next major snowfall to hit the Nation's Capital. Here is a quick look at a beta version of this new snow removal system. Armed with their two-foot long shovels and orange safety vests, these intrepid ladies will clear out your neighborhood in no time! Just took this today - two weeks after the snow began to fall. Wouldn't it be nice if a wheelchair-bound elderly woman wouldn't have to shovel through two feet of snow to get on a bus? I know the Washington, DC Government and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority had their hands full with the past blizzard, but this is ridiculous. I filmed her for six seconds then put the camera down to go help her out...but her bus came seconds later. She had to wheel herself out through a driveway.

13 comments:

Well, tax money doesn't grow on trees in the Great Recession and this incidence was so far from the norm that... sometimes, it's good for private citizens and organizations to do a bit of what we think of as owned by the government. That was some smart stuff on the volunteering.

DC's plan for the snow is the same one Marion Barry set in place in 1986: Wait until it melts! Fenty said exactly that on WRC last thursday. "It's not going to be gone until the temperature gets warm enough so that it can melt."

On an unrelated note, I am glad Why I Hate DC is once again attracting the crazy. I love stuff like this:

"Instead of complaining about snow removal, the transplants need to be complaining about the high rents their landlords are forcing them to pay each month."

Isn't it amazing how some people think that even in this country, anyone is "forced" to pay rent? I have never heard of someone being "forced" to sign a lease, or renew one, if they did not agree to the terms. Yet people still think that they are being "forced" to pay high rent, rather than accepting that they are choosing to pay a rent commensurate with the market rates for the place in which they chose to live.

But it is depressing that, apparently, our public school system has failed so miserably that some people think that the price that their "grandmother" paid for a home, probably 75 years ago, can and, indeed, should have any bearing whatsoever on the value of that home today, given inflation and dramatic changes in the real estate market as a result of loan availability and the relative desirabilty of the place that his grandmother lives then compared to today. Indeed, Washington of 75 years ago had little in common with Washington today.

Even today, the same 3 bedroom house in Washington DC could range in value from $200K to $1.5 million just by moving it a mile or two one direction or another. One thing that was, actually, true 75 years ago and is still true today about the real estate market, is that the three most important things are location, location, and location.

I am really not sure who this humorous commenter is saying is, or should be, "gatting" the last laugh, but I do wonder if that was an intentional typo trying to tie gang-crime in with this discussion somehow. Or just another sign of the fact that DC public schools weren't that great back then either.

DC's plan for the snow is the same one Marion Barry set in place in 1986: Wait until it melts! Fenty said exactly that on WRC last thursday. "It's not going to be gone until the temperature gets warm enough so that it can melt."

What do you know about 1986 Washington DC?

You were not even living here back then!!!!!

Isn't it amazing how some people think that even in this country, anyone is "forced" to pay rent? I have never heard of someone being "forced" to sign a lease, or renew one, if they did not agree to the terms. Yet people still think that they are being "forced" to pay high rent, rather than accepting that they are choosing to pay a rent commensurate with the market rates for the place in which they chose to live.

Nope. At this point you all are pretty much being forced to pay those overpriced rates.

The landlords can basically set what ever rates they want because they know their are plenty of trendy organic nasal voiced wanna-be urban pasty retards who will be more than willing to pay those inflated prices.

You all are your landlord's bitches.

Deep down inside you know that and it bothers you.

You all are being robbed every single month. Legally.

With all of the money the local landlords are making off of﻿ pasty nasal voiced inbred transplant idiots, the local landlords could easily purchase their own artificial snow and have a snowball fight of their own in the middle of the summertime.

But it is depressing that, apparently, our public school system has failed so miserably that some people think that the price that their "grandmother" paid for a home, probably 75 years ago, can and, indeed, should have any bearing whatsoever on the value of that home today, given inflation and dramatic changes in the real estate market as a result of loan availability and the relative desirabilty of the place that his grandmother lives then compared to today. Indeed, Washington of 75 years ago had little in common with Washington today.

Awww...

Is somebody upset that their family has not lived here long enough and will never be able to reap the rewards of such an inflated real estate market?

I am really not sure who this humorous commenter is saying is, or should be, "gatting" the last laugh, but I do wonder if that was an intentional typo trying to tie gang-crime in with this discussion somehow. Or just another sign of the fact that DC public schools weren't that great back then either.

What do you know about gangs?

What do you know about gats?

The very same latino gang members all the pasty transplants are scared and afraid of are the very same latinos who used to get their asses kicked on a daily basis by native whiteboys with long hair back in the days.

You are not, actually, the only person who has lived in DC more than five years. You are wrong.

"The landlords can basically set what ever rates they want because they know their are plenty of trendy organic nasal voiced wanna-be urban pasty retards who will be more than willing to pay those inflated prices. "

That's known as a market rate. Supply, demand, you know all that stuff they teach you in school. But you apparently didn't pay attention.

Don't like it? Go live somewhere else. Nobody is FORCING you to live in wherever it is you think you are being forced to live. You can choose to live somewhere less expensive.

Oh I see- you want a handout! You think that your status as a long-time DC resident should exempt you from market forces?

I bet when your grandmother sold her house for $750K she wasn't singing that tune.

"Is somebody upset that their family has not lived here long enough and will never be able to reap the rewards of such an inflated real estate market?"

Completely irrelevant, but I have lived here that long.

When will you realize that just being a longtime resident of DC does not grant you any special privileges?

Likewise, you are not the only person on this discussion forum who's been here since the Barry days.

You are not, actually, the only person who has lived in DC more than five years. You are wrong.

You know damn well you were not living in DC back in 1986 so get the fuck out of here with that bullshit!!!!!!

That's known as a market rate. Supply, demand, you know all that stuff they teach you in school. But you apparently didn't pay attention.

Don't like it? Go live somewhere else. Nobody is FORCING you to live in wherever it is you think you are being forced to live. You can choose to live somewhere less expensive.

I think you forgot who you are talking to here.This has nothing to do with me. I can afford to live anywhere I want to live.I have lived in Maryland, DC and in Virginia.All of my residences have been houses too and not some bullshit overpriced 1 bedroom luxury condo bullshit.

Oh I see- you want a handout! You think that your status as a long-time DC resident should exempt you from market forces?

"I dont look down on people.I give out respect and receive respect in return."

but you are looking down on people. you are assuming, it seems, that everyone who reads this web site and everyone who comments is some sort of rich kid pussy who flaunts money and is surprised when they get robbed.

sure, there are plenty of people like that here, but there are also a lot of people who came to this city without piles of cash or an apartment paid for by mommy and daddy.

i'll agree--something that pisses me off a lot about this city is the sense of entitlement a lot of these people have. i've seen it first hand. i mixed paint at a hardware store then walked down the street and checked IDs and bussed tables at a bar. you could see the look on a lot of people's faces, when they see you as the help. working those jobs, scraping by and living in a crappy (non-inflated) neighborhood showed me a whole other side of dc. i saw some ugly shit, some bad people, but also a lot of good. i wasn't living this life by choice, because being poor is cool, or anything like that. i didn't have a safety net to fall back on, all i had was a shitty life situation caused by some poor decisions and some bad luck.

so don't judge everyone so quickly, you don't know what they've been through. i think you'd be hard pressed to find commenters here who are slumming by choice in DC for fun until mom & dad makes them move back to new england.

don't lecture us on what the people of "real dc" think about anything. transplant or not, if you truly treat people with respect, you will earn respect. this is universal. you are not earning anyone's respect right now.

"Like I said before, You know damn well you were not living in DC back in 1986 so get the fuck out of here with that bullshit!!!!!"

I didn't say I lived here in 1986, I said I lived here since the barry days. I moved here in 1991. Marion Barry was mayor. I have owned three different homes in the District since then.

As I said before, though, it's a completely irrelevant point. People who moved here six months ago have just as much right to live here as you do.

Your attitude is, actually about the worst I've ever seen in my entire time here. I share my street with people who've have been alive on this planet longer than you, do not have internet access, and are almost without exception very nice people. They don't judge me because I've only been here 20 years, and they don't judge some of the young people on my street because they've been here a year. Everyone who acts like a good neighbor gets treated like one.

You go right on hating. It never gets anyone very far and certainly your holier-than-thou attitude on the basis of tenure alone doesn't get you much respect, except perhaps if you are friends with the mayor. He might give you a job.

Didn't your mommy ever teach you that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar?